A valid point indeed! And that room is full of shadows, which the wraiths can navigate at will. I’m surprised Daniel hasn’t twigged to this peculiarity. Looks like Scott is ratcheting up the suspence and the stakes. =)

Oh, they came through the portal alright, but are they the King and Queen or shapeshifters? If they are the King and Queen why did it take them until now to track down Alex and Dan? The timing is suspicious. The more I think about it the more it sounds like question and answer time.

This is starting to sound like a broken record. Never mind the fact that, at the moment, Daniel does not WANT to take his brother’s place, nor the fact that Alex is also a legitimate heir to King Arthur. Daniel is, what, 60 seconds older?

But mostly, this is upsetting because it shows how SHORTSIGHTED this elf king is!
He wants Alex to give up the sword RIGHT NOW and give Daniel the task of rescuing Nastajia from certain capture or doom?

Hello?! As LuckyWeasel points out, Alex is the one with the armor and knows how to fly. And he’s the one with EXPERIENCE in sword fighting. He’s already in the Nightmare realm and has learned to deal with his fear. Daniel? He’d be a COMPLETE NEWBIE. And for all we know, he could well appear in Dreamland and have to make the LONG trek to the Nighmare Realm!

I think that everyone seems to be excessively protective of Alex’s “right” to be king…but without realizing that the people who have been telling him that he needs to give that up have not been witness to or a part of his adventures. Now, I admittedly am a fan of the idea of Dan becoming king in the end (because I really like his character and I want him to get to go to Dreamland), but I totally get that Alex is the hero of this story, and we’ve been conditioned over the course of 1600 pages to be his biggest fans. Unfortunately, Niviene, King Oberon, and Queen Titainia have not received that same “conditioning.” Getting the “rightful” ruler on the throne has been their entire purpose for a long time…and that rightful ruler (based on their knowledge of the “laws of succession”) is Daniel. It’s only natural that they’d all push for Alex to abdicate.

My mind goes back to the man in the iron mask…… Meaning just cause your born first doesn’t mean you’ll make a good and fair king. Even looking at the Show Once Upon a Time…. Prince Charming Twin James was an Ass and until he died he was future king… Why not just have Daniel Abstain then they can stop the King Daniel… a train Daniel doesn’t want to conduct.

Like I said in my comment above…You have to remember that they were in search of the truth about who is supposed to be ruling Dreamland. They are interested in righting the wrong that Nicodemus inacted when he stole the throne from Arthur. With that in mind (and with no first-hand experience of Alex’s adventures), it makes sense that they’d push for Alex to give the throne to his brother…the “rightful heir”.

Possibly an Older, Wiser King testing the resolve and temperament of a much younger, inexperienced King? Otherwise his demand doesn’t make sense if he is truly ‘older and wiser’ per LuckyWeasel and xpacetrue’s coments. Plus, the look on Alex’s face in the last panel is that of someone calm and determined who Will back up his word with action and results. Or… LonePaladin’s nailed it. We’ll see……..

Oh come on! Them too!? I thought that of all people other than Staj and the main gang who have been with Alex throughout his adventures, Staj’s parents would have been the most supportive of Alex. This feels like a blow below the belt for poor Alex. Okay so maybe they know things we don’t, but I doubt shoving Daniel into the dreamworld right then and there would do ANYTHING to save Staj. Alex knows the current situation, he’s fought the nightmare creatures before. For now just knock him on the head with the bedroom lamp and let him go back ASAP. Discuss the whole succession thing AFTER the current crisis is done >.<

As noted, Oberon and Titania haven’t seen what Alex can do. They may not even be aware he and Nastajia defeated Nic after going toe to toe with him. They – and Niviene – are operating under a medieval mindset which holds that the Firstborn is ALWAYS the best choice; and in fact that things go bad when the Firstborn ISN’T on the throne. Oberon may well regard Alex’s possession of the Sword as a dangerous anomaly that has to end.

He may be about to get his preconceptions challenged. Especially if Dan weighs in.

But this may actually be more of a turning point for Alex. Ever since Niviene demanded he let Dan become King I think he’s been uncertain if he has any right to the Sword. He’s been wavering. But now the situation has been reshaped from “Who should be King?” to “As long as I have the Sword I can protect Nas”. That should make it much simpler for him. We may see a much more determined Alex now, at least for a while.

If they can locate the portal (assuming one exists on our side) and Alex can go through it to be with Nastajia then there’s no reason Alex couldn’t hand over the sword then to let Daniel be King of Dreamland while Alexander married Nastajia to become King of the Elves. Nice solution, if there’s a portal in existence on our side and they can find and reach it. To our current knowledge the portal on our side was destroyed and no other portal exists, yet the creatures from the Nightmare Realm are getting through somehow, so unless they don’t need a portal on our end to come through odds are good that one exists somewhere.

Maybe they are a little angry because he was away for years, and want to find out how he reacts right now, and why he didn’t return to Dreamland. They saw Nastajia’s reaction when he “was killed, somewhere we couldn’t come”
I can’t wait 😀

I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and remember that all characters have their own back-story that influences their perspective. Oberon and Titania have only just arrived on the scene (though it was [p]ages ago from our point of view), so their perspective on the matter of kingship is colored by their own quest for knowledge and their discoveries about Nicodemus being an usurper. The same can be said of Niviene. She has lived in seclusion for ages, and the love of her life was there when the throne was stolen from Arthur…a bit of coloration on her perspective.

Our perspective is colored more in favor of Alex retaining the Sword of Kings (at least for now) because we’ve followed his growth and development…we’ve seen him take on Nicodemus…we’ve seen him training…and we know that Dan isn’t so sure that he even wants to be king because of what that would mean taking from his brother.

Team Alex & Team Dan can definitely get along as long as we remember that the perspectives of the team members are very different. 🙂

Nobility, trained from birth in the law of succession, believes in the righteousness of the system just the way Congress believes in its inherent right to ‘rule’ and the benefits of their power. How could one expect Nastajia’s parents to believe otherwise?

Alex, facing such moral dilemmas, can only grow and mature. I once heard a phrase that describes Dan at this point in his life. “Knowledge comes, wisdom lingers.” Dan may be smart, but he hasn’t had a life providing wisdom yet. In that regard neither brother is ready for any throne.

Short term? No clue which way Scott will head. Long Term? I’m betting Dan becomes King, Alex is his right hand, Nicole becomes Dan’s Queen, and I won’t even guess how Nastajia will play out.

This doesn’t seem right… I have a suspicion that these aren’t really Nastajia’s parents. Also, I don’t think Dan appearing in the nightmare realm with no knowledge on how to fight with the sword would be a HUGE disadvantage. Not to mention the shock and awe he’d likely feel when he got there. Now is not the time for passing along the sword.

Ok, assuming this isn’t a wraith thing or whatever, this page just seems weird to me. Not so much that the two of them think dan should be ruler, but that they’d bring it up right this second.

Just to sum up the conversation so far, we have the two of them along with dan and nicole sneaking into his room and waking him up because holy crap it’s nastajia’s parents.

Alex: What the elves?
O+T: Hi Alex! Remember us?
Alex: Holy crap we found you! Oh wait.. crap she’s still in the nightmare realm!
O+T: What?!? Why the heck?
Alex: We were looking for you
O+T: But why would she do that!
Alex and Dan: Seriously? You’re asking that?

And from that we somehow immediately go to..

Oberon: Quick, give Dan the sword so he can fix this!

Am I missing something here? Why is that even the subject at the moment? Birthright or not, you have someone who’s already there with her, already knows the situation, already knows Nastajia, heck is already in bed ready to get back to sleep (after some sleep medication maybe thanks to all the excitement right now probably spiking adrenelin.)

If they want to have the birthright discussion fine, but trying to do this now just seems like really dumb timing. Make sure Nastajia is safe first, and then have this chat.

Short version, I don’t really care if we involve them in this plot point as well, this just seems like a really awkward place to put it. Seems to just completely change the topic out of the blue.

Here’s a quick bit of info that will unfold throughout the rest of this book…
Not really a spoiler…but since you’re reading only a page a day…I’ll help some of you out.

1) Dan and Nicole have had some time to “catch the King and Queen of Elves up”
2) the TRUE king will both have MORE power and be better suited to these things.
not a temporary one
Oberon and Titania know this… as they HAVE been studying up on the history of Dreamland (the tablet which led them to seek out the other tablets and eventually disappear).
3) This chapter will bring all of your arguments of “Dan or Alex as King” into light and get the ball rolling towards the finale over the last 3 chapters after this one.

At the risk of sounding like everybody else, Alex has had more training and experience. Dan’s “right to rule” does not benefit him in any way in this situation right now. The regular mundane royal duties of governing, eh, discussion for a later date. I also pray that this is some kind of Nightmare Realm trick and they aren’t her parents. Besides, if there is no portal to Earth, how did Oberon and Titania get there to begin with?

Well – so, by the looks of it, Alex is powerless because he en’t the true king.

Just … just let him have a way to dreamland WITHOUT the sword. He knows what he wants, and that’s not being King. The more, as I see things, I remember a post of Scott where he explains how he raises his boys – and tells how he is used to set right what needs to be in the right ways so these two get an idea of how one can do things in a good and rightful way. Well – and I do remember that he’s stated, that Dan IS the true king, not Alex, no matter what these two think or feel about that.

It s gonna be quite interesting how Scott is gonna work this one out. Mebbe there’s a chance with that portal?

Glad to see that the discussion has hinted that Alex may not actually be awake. Whenever Alex returns to the waking world, the reader sees him fade from view. This was not the case, this time around, and it raises suspicion that we may be seeing the Nightmare Realm’s true power.

Here’s a fun question for you Scott. How many books do you think the dreamland chronicles would be if it was just a novel, not a comic? So no pictures. 2 or 3 is my guess. Just thought it was a fun question. Think dreamland will ever be released like that?

So, let me get this straight? They want to send Dan, who has never BEEN to Dreamland, has no combat experience what so ever, no one there really knows him, he would probably end up someplace that ISN’T the Nightmare Realm and they expect him to save their daughter….how exactly? Because he is there and his presence will make the Nightmare Realm fall to it’s knees? I am sorry, there is suspension of disbelief and there is this and I can’t quite wrap my head around how this could be logical or even how it would be best for Nastajia in any way shape or form.

Well, we don’t know what Dan would be capable of doing if he were in Dreamland with the Sword. He might be superhuman, all powerful, unbeatable. Or he might appear in the middle of the Nightmare Realm, be paralyzed by fear, and get Nas and himself killed or captured. If he fails, that poses a problem because according to Orion when Alex passes the Sword over he can’t take it back. Unless he could physically go to Dreamland through the Portal, that would mean they’d be beaten and the NR triumphant…

Also I understand the reasons but right now is not a good time to train a newbie no matter how naturally better he is cuz
1. Dan would solve the overall problem but Alex is the only one that can solve the immediate one.
2. The armor might not transfer with the sword and get stuck in that void between.
3. No level of talent is good as practice and Alex has the training.
4. Dan being a first timer might not pop in where Alex was. Dan might pop in The Dreamland continient miles from where she is with no way to find her or even what direction to take. She would be as good as screwed.
5. So wait till the are out of the immediate danger. (temporairly at least)